Piling On

I think Mike Amodeo has a hard enough time as it is, given that Governor Cuomo has all but endorsed incumbent Republican Mark Grisanti, that it’s bad form for disgruntled Swanick supporters to pile on. Instead of promoting or assisting the Democrat’s campaign – despite empty pledges to get behind him – they mock him.

Of course, nominal “Democrat” Chuck Swanick, who challenged Amodeo for the Democratic nomination – and lost quite convincingly – remains in the race because he represents the homophobe vote. His entire reason for being in this race is pure politics, essentially conspiring with Ralph Lorigo’s transactional, unconservative “Conservative Party” to siphon off the homophobe vote from Grisanti and Amodeo.

Probably the two biggest issues facing voters in just about every senate district in the state are jobs and hydrofracking. It should come as no surprise that both Grisanti and Amodeo want more jobs. They differ, however, on the issue of hydrofracking, and this is likely why Cuomo and Grisanti are trying to change the subject by making stuff up about the tax cap.

As for the Swanick “Democrats'” “support” of Amodeo, this must be more evidence of what Andrew Cuomo/Steve Casey/Steve Pigeon/Frank Max’s “unity” looks like.

uoftlinda

I am quite appalled by the Mark Grisanti ad I keep seeing on television: “Do you think that Welfare recipients should be allowed to use government benefits to buy alcohol, liquor and lottery tickets? Mark Grisanti doesn’t!” Mark Grisanti knows darned well that recipients of government benefits are not allowed to use those benefits to buy alcohol, liquor and lottery tickets, but it’s election time, and the poor make good targets for the general public’s frustrations.

Likewise Mark Grisanti has recently called for
the reintroduction of proposed state legislation to require Medicaid recipients
to have their palms or fingerprints scanned, with biometric information
embedded on cards, before they can receive medical care or get prescriptions
filled. The purpose of this measure, he
says, is to reduce Medicaid fraud by making it more difficult for Medicaid
patients or others ineligible for services to obtain inappropriate treatment or
prescription drugs. However, as Artvoice
noted recently, “According to a piece in
the Buffalo
News regarding this very same
press conference, only 10 percent of healthcare fraud in New York State is
attributable to consumers—the $5.4 billion figure implied by the Grisanti
campaign just got a lot smaller. The lion’s share of Medicaid fraud is
perpetrated by individual doctors, medical groups, hospitals, and clinics…There’s
also the matter of just how much it will cost to outfit every Medicaid office
in the state with biometric technology. Expectedly, Grisanti was more than a
little vague on this point. There’s also the matter of just how much it will
cost to outfit every Medicaid office in the state with biometric technology.
Expectedly, Grisanti was more than a little vague on this point.” But it’s easier to put a target on the back
of the poor and the disadvantaged, to draw upon time-worn stereotypes of
welfare recipients.